MovieChat Forums > The Killing (2011) Discussion > "A Show to Avoid" unless you like yellin...

"A Show to Avoid" unless you like yelling at your TV

posted 8 years ago by martywebphone
9 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS (I quit at season 4 episode 1 for obvious reasons)

Good actors failed by horrible writing...
When the only reason for a persons actions are "It's in the script" the show is done.

Multiple characters withhold evidence (for no logical reason) that would quickly remove people from the list of suspects.

Cell-phones magically cease to work just at the right moment in order for Boy and Girl cops to fail to catch suspects or share information. (repeatedly)

Boy and Girl cop are repeatedly blocked by "Public" personas in season one, yet for some reason can't talk to anyone outside of the two-three people repeatedly blocking them?? Hello news media??

(said at at news conference)

"Yes. our young girl appears to have been kidnapped at a local casino"
"As of current the casino will not release the surveillance tapes or grant us access"

20 NEWS trucks would have been camping in the casino parking lot day five.

Of course the show would have been over in ten episodes... but let's face it... without all of the false leads, missed calls, it should have been.

Season 3

Wow just wow....

"Hey I was just calling to say who the Killer is, If you want to know call me back?"

When the Script calls for a character to withhold info like that until they are dead, what a freaking joke... it should be a drinking game the number of times all of the characters call each other and say AND I QUOTE

"Hey Holder it's me...call me back I have something important to say"

Let's try the real world instead...

Linden "Hey Holder it's me....I just noticed our dead girls ring on Jim Bobs daughter"

Season 4

"Game Over"

Our two knuckle heads decide to cover up the work of a serial killer, instead of placing his own gun in his hand.

Which is only made possible by Holders refusal to say out loud in a crowded police station "Hey I think Linden's in trouble"

Instead he drives half way across the state to the spooky forest instead...

When the two lead detectives actions VIOLATE even simplistic standards of how people act in the real world..... you can only blame the writers.

Finally and the worst sign of horrible writing, when the bad guy suddenly becomes all knowing and can quickly spirit away a prime witness, from a lit restaurant, before Holders phone becomes functional again, before she can say in a voice mail who the killer is, before she remembers that NOT ONE SINGLE TEENAGER calls anyone!!

TEXT "Hey Holder, I know you're pissed but your chief of police is the killer"

[–] hugh-g-rctin 8 years ago

Not a bad rant...

I just finished watching this show and I agree with everything you said. I don't even know exactly when I realized I was watching garbage but by the end I was at the point where I was just laughing at how bad the show was.

Around half way through season 1 I realized that instead of solving a crime each episode like your standard show, this shows gimmick is that the cops chase down a new suspect each episode for the same crime, and at the end, it turns out it wasn't that guy. Rinse and repeat for next week... What a ridiculous concept... lmfao...

I should've bailed at this point, but against my better judgement, I continued fiending on this garbage until it was done.

As you pointed out, the amount of *beep* that needs to happen to stretch out a single murder case over 20+ episodes by constantly chasing down bad, but still convincing, leads, ruins the whole story.

By season 3 I lost all hope. The whole street-kid story was so ridiculous. Any credibility the show had at that point evaporated.

And season 4 was just stupid decision after stupid decision. Linden has to the be the most unlikable main character I've ever seen. And wtf is up with her ex filing a complaint with child services then not wanting the kid? That didn't make a whole lot of sense.

[–] bkt-86869 8 years ago

I fully agree with the OP. Great explanation of the frustrations I had with this show.

So many things were contrived specifically to lead the viewer astray rather than being legitimate actions that would be performed by the actual people in the show. Also, numerous scenes did not reveal any information but rather teased the viewer that information that they were NOT showing was important for us to know.

To Hugh, you might have missed the scene where Linden's son was talking to his GF and admitted that he made up the story about his Dad not wanting him to make Linden feel more important in his life and not so alone.

[–] planetchris24-7 8 years ago

Completely agree with you OP. I liked this show enough to forgive a lot of the issues with S1 and S2, including the blatant ripoff of many elements of Mystic River. S3 was good to a point, but the priest was the last straw for red herrings for me and then the end of S3 just killed it for me. I quit watching 5 minutes into the first epi of S4 and feel like I should have left it alone after the S2 finale. So tired of all these shows that have to rely on unbelievable character decisions and plot twists to advance the narrative to fulfill their desired episode count. I went from loving this show to hating it in S3. So disappointed....

[–] agua9 7 years ago

@planetchris, the ending of season 4 wraps up seasons 3 & 4 together ... i think it's very much worth it to watch the whole thing. the best parts about this show were the final two seasons. the first two seasons were too gut wrenching (showing how much pain the Larsen family went through) but the ending of Season 4 ties together the show nicely. u should watch season 4 as it's only six episodes long.

[–] agua9 7 years ago

u owe it to yourself to watch the last season. it ties together the 3rd & 4th seasons nicely at the end. i agree that the first two seasons were not great. i liked them but they were way too dark & gut wrenching. the last season wraps the whole thing up .. u should give it a try (there are only six episodes!)

[–] agua9 7 years ago

::SPOILERS::

btw, i agree that it was odd how Bullet didn't just text Holder about the chief of police. however, there actually *was* a reason that she called into the police station & left the cryptic message. Skinner said at the end that Bullet thought she was being "clever". which means that by calling into the police station that she knew that Skinner would get that cryptic message. now the question would be "why?". not sure, but by Skinner's comment, the character of Bullet did that on purpose (it doesn't make sense, but maybe it was just to screw with Skinner's mind???)

[–] bljonathan 7 years ago

I havent watched s4 yet but i thought it was implied Bullet was trying to lure the chief. Coukd be wrong. There are a lot of problems with the show though.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 6 years ago

Yep, this show is a mess, and it gets worse the longer it runs until by season 4 it's totally ridiculous. I tried to be more forgiving of it's lapses in logic and credulity in the first two seasons because they weren't overwhelming...but the final two seasons were just a perpetual parade of stupidity. Season 4's main plot with the military school cadet was like a long drawn-out episode of a Law & Order episode (and not a good one, either) Mercifully though, L&O wraps up their stories in 45 minutes, they don't drag them out for 6 hours.

[–] kadeemlive (112) 5 years ago

Ignore this whole thread and just watch the show for yourself.